


Change of Heart

by narukamiyu



Category: Persona 3, Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Persona 3 Spoilers, Persona 5 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24140086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narukamiyu/pseuds/narukamiyu
Summary: Goro Akechi meets a ghost.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 93





	Change of Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lavenderet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderet/gifts).



> a birthday fic for my lovely girlfriend!! i hope you enjoy <3

With a single bullet, Goro Akechi experiences death.

Or at least, he thinks he does. Everything becomes blurred until the mechanical hum of the cruiser disappears, replaced by soft grass that tickles his face. With an irritated frown, he pulls himself up first to his knees, then to his feet. His vision clears.

The first thing he sees is a see-saw. A playground, meant for children. And when he turns, an unfamiliar shrine greets him. This doesn’t seem to be anywhere near Tokyo, at least not where he’s been. But how is it possible for him to have ended up here when he was last inside a Palace? It shouldn’t have been possible for him to escape so wholly, too. He feels just fine despite the demanding fight that he’d had with the Phantom Thieves. 

So maybe he _is_ dead. Well, this is the lousiest excuse of Hell that he’s ever seen. 

“Are you going to keep ignoring me?” a girl’s voice says from behind him. He whips around, almost reaching for a weapon that isn’t there anymore. He _knows_ that she wasn’t there just a second ago, so how could she have sneaked up on him? Death couldn’t have possibly dulled his senses that much. 

“Who are you? Where am I?” he says sharply. She keeps smiling at him, which just annoys him even more. What about this situation could possibly be amusing?

She does a little curtsy. “Good evening. You’ve arrived at Naganaki Shrine. Thank you for joining us at Arisato Airlines.” He can’t quite tell how old she is, and she’s not wearing a uniform of any sort. Her red eyes are reminiscent of his own, and her hair is pulled up into a ponytail and tidied with several pins.

Perhaps he can pull some answers out of her politely? He manages a smile, pushing down the frustration boiling inside of him. “My name is Goro Akechi. You might have heard of me?”

“Nope!” she says cheerfully. This girl must be a formidable one. She seems to be enjoying this, his befuddlement and all. Goro holds back a sigh.

“I assume your name is Arisato, then?”

“Hamuko Arisato, yes.”

Now they're getting somewhere. “You said this was a shrine. It’s not near Tokyo, I take it?”

She eyes him curiously. “No...this is Tatsumi Port Island. You’ve traveled a long way.”

“But just how is that possible?” he mutters to himself. She hears him anyway.

“I...may have helped. You seemed to be in trouble, so I brought you somewhere safe. This is a familiar place to me.” She seems a bit sheepish about it all, and Goro has no idea what he’s supposed to think.

“And just how exactly did you bring me here?” He can tell by this point that he is, in fact, not dead. “I can’t have been unconscious that long, and I don’t remember seeing you anywhere nearby.”

“We’re all part of the sea of souls, you know,” Arisato says mysteriously. Goro takes that to mean that she doesn’t know anything. When he turns around to leave, or at least to find a way back to Tokyo, she calls out to him.

“Wait! I’m sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that.” She steps up beside him and sighs. “The truth is, I’m not exactly alive. But lately, I’ve found that I have the freedom to kind of...wander? If that makes sense.”

“It absolutely doesn’t,” he snaps. At her pout, he at least tries to calm down. “So. You say you’re a ghost? And you helped me out so that I wouldn’t die myself?”

“Something like that.” Her expression becomes solemn. “I saw what you did. You saved the others, despite knowing that it would be your downfall.” She looks away, an odd sadness overtaking her features. “You remind me of a friend of mine. He wanted revenge, too…”

Goro scowls at her. “So what? You’re going to pity me now? Tell me I could have made better choices?” He doesn’t need this, especially not from an absolute stranger.

But Arisato just shakes her head. “You have a second chance, but how you use it is up to you. Are you going to go back?”

“Of course I am,” he scoffs. “I have no business here.” But even as he says it, some part of him feels strange at the idea of leaving her alone. It’s not that he particularly cares, but he can’t help but be curious about what’s going to happen to her. It isn’t every day that you encounter a ghost.

“I won’t stop you,” she says, “but would you mind if I accompanied you for a bit? I don’t think there’s anything I can do in this place anymore.”

The way she says it is resigned, and Goro wonders if this was her home before she died. “Whatever. You’re a ghost, aren’t you? You can do whatever pleases you.”

“Except be with my loved ones,” she snarks at him. She has a point, but he’s not going to acknowledge that. 

“If you’re going to follow me around, at least make yourself useful and guide me to the station.” He’d rather not wander around like a fool if he can help it. 

With a huff, Arisato obliges and starts leading him away from the shrine. “You’re not even going to offer to help me out of my situation? Heroes sure have changed since my day.”

Goro doesn’t bother responding. What could he possibly do to help a dead person, anyway?

Eventually, they reach Port Island Station. It’s nothing impressive, and Goro can already tell that the back alleys are a place of seedy business. The movie theater is the only thing that stands out, aside from the flower stand. He briefly remembers that Amamiya works at Rafflesia and scowls. It’s such an irrelevant detail to recall. 

He buys a ticket for one because no one else seems to be able to see Arisato anyway. It’s just his luck that he gets haunted right after almost dying inside his damned father’s Palace. “Why me?” he asks as they wait for the train. The clock is nearly at eight o’clock; he has about ten minutes to kill.

Luckily, Arisato seems to understand what he means immediately. “I was drawn to that world, to that moment. Two wild cards, not to mention several Persona users in one place...I could sense it even from where I was sleeping.”

Goro frowns. “Sleeping? I thought you said you were dead.”

Arisato closes her eyes. “In a manner of speaking. Years ago, ruin almost came to this world because too many people looked to the end of everything as the answer. My soul acts as the Seal to prevent it from reaching humanity again, until the day they no longer wish for it…”

He purses his lips disdainfully. “People really are selfish, aren’t they? Cluelessly wishing for something that would only bring demise to the wrong people.” He’s always known that humans are full of cowardice, but seeing yet another victim of it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

She smiles at him sadly. “I don’t really know if they _deserve_ demise. Hopelessness comes to the best of us, you know.” She trails off as the train screeches into the platform. The doors slide open with a _whoosh_ , and the two of them step on and take their seats. No one else is on board, at least not where he can see. If he didn’t know better, he’d think this was a ghost train.

“I don’t see you getting freed from your role anytime soon,” Goro says bluntly. “Societies always feel as if they’re on the verge of collapse. People can pretend to ignore it, but their nihilism shows in their actions.”

“Yours shows in your words,” Arisato shoots back. Well, she got him there. He doesn’t really see the point of anything besides bringing his shitty father to justice. Was that always the case? Was he always this jaded?

Suddenly, an invitation comes to mind. Or rather, several. Even having been so focused on his goal back then, he had enjoyed those times, hadn’t he? He’d felt _something_ for his rival. 

“There are always people who will fight for those who can’t,” Arisato says quietly. “Isn’t that still important?”

Goro looks out the window. The night sky rushes by, and the chill that must be present outside seems to seep into his fingertips, even though his gloves. “I never saw the point of making deeper connections with others. Either I use them, or they use me.”

Arisato tilts her head. “I used to be similar, once. The world felt so bleak, and I thought that bonds didn’t matter. But coming from someone who changed...I can tell that you have, too.”

“Don’t give me that,” he hisses. “You don’t know me. I don’t care about anyone.” But even to his own ears, the statement rings false. He curses Ren for upsetting the place that he’d made for himself in the world. No matter how hard he denies it, Goro knows that he was unable to pull away completely, despite attempting to kill him multiple times. What kind of fucked up situation is this?

“I think there are still some things that you need to face regarding yourself. The Phantom Thieves’ journey isn’t over, and neither is yours.”

Goro rolls his eyes. “Cryptic bullshit again.” Even so, he can’t help but acknowledge that she might be right. He’s alive, so he might as well put himself to use. “What, are you going to act as my guide?”

Arisato shakes her head. She suddenly appears alarmingly tired. “I think...I’ll take a nap soon. But it’ll be okay.”

Does he really believe that? Goro stares at her as she leans back against her seat and closes her eyes. “Rude of you to sleep when you have company,” he quips. For some reason, he feels a pang of loneliness when she doesn’t respond. For the first time since they’d met, she really does appear to be the ghost that she is.

The train continues on deep into the night. When the announcer declares that they are pulling into Goro’s stop, he stands with uncertainty and glances back at Arisato. He has no choice but to leave her behind, yet something about it doesn’t sit right with him.

_There are always people who will fight for those who can’t._

Goro sighs and steps off the train. It looks like he’ll have his work cut out for him in his second chance at life.


End file.
